The most popular film made by the Belgian trash-meister Jean-Louis van Belle (1939-2021). Other van Belle films include the Mondo-esque documentary FORBIDDEN PARIS/Paris Interdit (1970), the revenge thriller THE LADY KILLS/ Perverse et docile (1971) and the sexploitation comedy PERVERTISSIMA (1972), with THE SADIST WITH RED TEETH/Le sadique aux dents rouges (1971) being his only dabble in the horror genre.
Following a bevy of negatively exposed images that play under the opening credits, we’re introduced to Daniel Bernard (Daniel Moosmann), a young Paris-based graphic artist seen leaving the office of Dr. Rollet (Albert Simono). The latter has supposedly “cured” Daniel of vampiric compulsions, but subsequent events suggest otherwise.
Daniel complains that “I feel a strange world pressing down on me,” and neglects his girlfriend Jane (Jane Clayton). He also develops a debilitating fascination with blood, and impulsively chokes a woman in a movie theater. More strangling and neck biting—accomplished via false (but very sharp) teeth—follow, and matters certainly aren’t helped when Daniel visits a self-proclaimed vampire, a middle-aged creep who resides in a cluttered apartment, where he turns his psychologically disturbed pupil into an actual bloodsucker.
Dr. Rollet believes Daniel is delusional, but elects to reinforce those supposed delusions by hiring a fake hypnotist who affirms Daniel’s vampiric state, and bequeaths a most appropriate nickname: Red Tooth. Dr. Rollet stalks Daniel, together with a nosy police inspector and a journalist with designs on Jane. The drama comes to a head at a costume party that Daniel attends, of course, as a vampire—and he, of course, takes the masquerade a bit too far, attacking his fellow partygoers and getting chased outside, where he continues his rampage before cops put a permanent stop to him and his vampiric reign.
This is territory that was staked out by trash movie auteurs like Jess Franco and Jose Larraz, who weren’t known for subtlety or finesse—meaning it’s probably wrong to expect those things in THE SADIST WITH RED TEETH. I do, however, think we’re justified in desiring a less amateurish treatment.
The film’s only interesting aspect is Jean-Louis van Belle’s portrayal of Daniel’s psychosis via a variety of innovative means, such as people around him walking backwards, clips of explosions, falling trees and collapsing buildings, and old movie snippets intercut with the action (long before Bernardo Bertolucci allegedly “pioneered” the practice in 2004’s THE DREAMERS). All this innovation, alas, feels forced, especially given the clumsiness of the filmmaking and the woodenness of the performances.
There is, needless to say, a great deal of female nudity, much of it presented in leering close-up. No complaints here (nekkidity being a staple of Eurotrash horror), but naked bodies do nothing to render a lackluster product any less interminable.
Vital Statistics
THE SADIST WITH RED TEETH (Le Sadique Aux Dents Rouges)
Cinevision
Director: Jean-Louis van Belle
Producer: Charles Van Der Haeghen
Cinematography: Jacques Grévin
Cast: Daniel Moosmann, Jane Clayton, Albert Simono, Michel Maiofis, Natalie Perrey, Jean-Paul Frankeur, Régis Anders, Antoine Mosin, Jean-Noël Delamarre